About Qadian

Qadian (Punjabi: ਕਾਦੀਆਂ (Gurmukhi), قادیان (Shahmukhi);) is the 4th largest town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated 18 kilometres (11 mi) north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India.

Qadian is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Islamic movement. It had remained the centre of the Ahmadiyya movement until the Partition of India in 1947.

Qadian was established in 1530 by Mirza Hadi Baig, a religious scholar dedicated to Islam and the first Qazi within the area. Mirza Hadi Baig, was from a royal household of Mirza who formed Mughal Empire. He migrated from Samarkand and settled in Punjab. He was descendant of King Timur and had family relations with King Babur and was qiven 80 villages by Babur. Because of his religious beliefs, he named the center of the 80 villages ‘Islam Pur Qazi’ from where he administered. Over time, the name of the town changed to ‘QaziMaji’ (the word “Maji” means Bull referring to the animal still found in abundance in Qadian). Later, it was named just ‘Qadi’ and eventually, it became known as Qadian.

Qadian and the surrounding areas later fell to the Ramgharia Sikhs who offered the ruling Qazis two villages which they refused. In 1834, during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the region consisting of Qadian and five adjoining villages were given to Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, father of Ghulam Ahmad in return for Military support in Kashmir, Mahadi, Kulu valley, Peshawar and Hazara.